North Kingstown – Julia M. Buckley, 84, of North Kingstown, passed away peacefully on April 21, 2023 at Roberts Health Centre. She was the loving wife of Richard T. “Dick” Buckley. Born in Westerly, she was the daughter of the late Louis L. Matthews and Julia (McGrath) Matthews.
Mrs. Buckley was a graduate of St. Xavier’s High School and URI, where she majored in English and Education. She taught at Woodrow Wilson High School in Middletown, CT, Westerly High School, and in Shrewsbury, MA.
Julia and Dick met each other at a bar, opposite the Statler Hotel 1 in 1959. She was in Boston with two classmates before her senior year at URI. The couple were married three years later.
She was a devoted full-time mother while her children were growing up. She was one of the founders of St. Mary’s Parents Association in Shrewsbury, MA where she was instrumental in bringing hot lunch and physical education programs to St. Mary’s School. She and her husband founded the highly successful Octoberfest celebrations in 1977 as a major fundraiser for St. Mary’s School.
She was a corporate secretary and office manager for the family business. Once retired, Julia took up an interest in running and ran both the New York City Marathon and the Myrtle Beach Marathon.
She also caught the “golf bug” and could proudly proclaim she had a hole in one. Back to her Rhode Island roots, she was an active member of a couple’s golf group that she and her husband founded for over ten years.
Julia traveled to 31 foreign countries and swam in the depths of the Mediterranean while the ship was at sea.
She leaves her loving children, Richard F. Buckley and his wife Jo-Ann of Shrewsbury, MA and Brian M. Buckley and his wife Andrea of Warwick. She was the mother of the late Julia Schaaf and Jeanne Buckley. Cherished grandmother of Joseph Buckley of Seattle, Jessica Buckley of Amherst, NH, Colin Buckley of Boston, Austin & Branden Buckley of Oldsmar, FL, and Kaitlyn, Katrina, and Kristen Schaaf of Concord, MA. She was the sister of the late Merton Matthews and Bernard Matthews.
Her Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Friday, April 28, 2023. in St. Bernard Church, North Kingstown.
Arrangements were entrusted to the Cranston-Murphy Funeral Home of Wickford.
